The Disaster Recovery Handbook: A Step-by-Step Plan to Ensure Business Continuity and Protect Vital Operations, Facilities, and Assets - Hardcover

Wallace, Michael; Webber, Lawrence

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0814416136 ISBN 13: 9780814416136

Publisher: AMACOM, 2011

Synopsis

Terrorist attacks. Data assaults. Natural catastrophes. Disease outbreaks. Recent years have taught us that not only was 9/11 not just a single, horrible occur rence, but that events of many types can―and statistically will―hit organizations of every size, threatening to disrupt and potentially even destroy those that are not fully prepared.

This revised edition, filled with up-to-the-minute thinking and the latest legal and technological updates, provides readers with practical tools and ready-to-use instructions for assessing risk; clearly documenting recovery procedures; assembling a disaster team; testing and debugging every step; protecting material resources; and recovering vital records.

In addition to a CD packed with forms and checklists, the book contains case studies, interviews, and all the practical guidance needed to create the kind of thorough disaster recovery plan every responsible organization must have in place.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Wallace (Columbus, OH) is VP of Application Engineering at Result Data, an IT strategy, business intelligence, and disaster recovery consulting firm. He is a member of the Contingency Planners of Ohio and the Project Management Institute.

Lawrence Webber (Columbus, OH) is a Certified Project Manager (CPM), a Master Business Continuity Professional (MBCP), and Director of Programs and Processes for System Design Advantage.

From the Back Cover

Electrical outages, fires, floods, computer malfunctions, toxic material spills, water main breaks, labor strikes, sabotage. The number of disasters that can shut down your organization is vast, and the likelihood of one striking is inevitable. Even minor setbacks, like a fifteen-minute blackout, can cost you a bundle.

With a focus on practical solutions and an emphasis on getting your operations functional as soon as possible, this all-new edition of The Disaster Recovery Handbook helps you develop a clear, what-to-do-next plan of action for your organization. From assembling your team to analyzing your risk to testing your plan, you’ll learn to minimize damage and quickly recover from any natural or human-made disaster.

Completely revised and updated, The Disaster Recovery Handbook walks you through a multitude of real-life disaster scenarios, pointing out what works and what doesn’t for bringing order to chaotic situations. You’ll learn to implement every key step in a recovery effort, including how to:

• Assemble a disaster reaction team.

• Design a business impact analysis and risk assessment.

• Prepare recovery plans for different scenarios.

• Test and debug every step.

• Pinpoint the best place to locate your emergency operations center.

• Preserve essential data networks.

• Recover from a power outage.

• Retrieve vital records.

• And much more.

Plenty of people have come up with sloppy, hastily prepared disaster plans that languish on a shelf. But your plan won’t. By following the how-to guidelines and ready-to-use forms on the accompanying CD, this sweeping, start-to-finish guide will serve as an essential survival guide for navigating the trials ahead.

From the Inside Flap

Katrina, 9/11, and the BP oil spill are the kinds of deep-impact disasters that every company dreads. But even everyday threats—a roof collapsing, a computer network failing, a gas truck toppling over on the highway and shutting down distribution lines—can seriously disrupt operations, sometimes permanently.

Disaster preparation isn’t a “nice-to-have”; it’s an imperative. The Disaster Recovery Handbook is your all-in-one toolkit for surviving any potential danger by building a comprehensive recovery plan that spells out exactly what to do, when, and by whom. With a practical, reality-based focus, the book emphasizes getting critical business functions up and running as quickly as possible, and supplies step-by-step instructions and project management tools for making it happen. You’ll find guidelines on how to:

• Gather a top-notch team of knowledgeable coworkers, and clarify both the scope of the project and specific tasks and deadlines.

• Identify all of the probable threats that could disrupt your business, and use that information to create a complete risk assessment picture that pinpoints vulnerabilities.

• Select a recovery strategy for quickly restoring vital business functions to a serviceable level, a step that vastly reduces the risk of catastrophe shutting down your doors.

• Write a clear, complete recovery plan for your organization—or customize one of the four plans supplied on the accompanying CD.

• Prepare instructions for salvaging a crippled IT system, or any vital technical function—from restoring a single piece of machinery to maintaining a customer service call center during a disaster.

• Safeguard your irreplaceable data, which can be lost or compromised from factors such as server failures, fire, user errors, or a security breach.

• Plus much more.

All-new chapters provide an overview of project management essentials to ensure your plan is a success, guidelines for effective communication in the early stages of a disaster, instructions on writing disaster recovery plans for every vital business function, tips for mitigating the effect of widespread pandemic, and more.

Packed with forms and checklists on the companion CD, helpful “what to do” sidebars, and recommended strategies for specific scenarios, the second edition of The Disaster Recovery Handbook is your one-stop guide for both avoiding potential trouble and recovering quickly when disaster strikes.

Michael Wallace is vice president of consulting services at Result Data, an IT strategy, business intelligence, and disaster recovery consulting firm. He has 25 years of experience in information systems, including positions as programmer at Reynolds & Reynolds, and president of Q Consulting. He is a member of the Contingency Planners of Ohio and the Project Management Institute.

Lawrence Webber is a Certified Project Manager (CPM) and a Master Business Continuity Professional (MBCP). He has held a variety of positions in the information services field for more than 25 years.

Edition details

• Publisher: AMACOM
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0814416136
• ISBN 13: 9780814416136
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 448